ICFF and Soho parties were fun, but my favorite part of NYC Design week was the whole Joint Venture thingy in Williamsburg with The Future Perfect, Living Spaces, CITIZEN:Citizen and A Little Green. Even though I really can’t concentrate on design very well when surrounded by people and alcohol, I saw quite a few unique things at these shows that I didn’t see anywhere else. Unfortunately, my photographs of the events were less than fabulous, because I was trying to carry around a slushy that I got at the door of The Future Perfect.

A lovely sparkly chandelier downstairs in the American Dollhouse exhibit at The Future Perfect

ICFF was fun in an Olympic village sort of way. I liked the geographical organization of the whole thing, and the nationalistic pride that was on full display at each country’s trade board booth. In the Danish section I saw this elegant expanding table by Skagerak Denmark ? the expanding table being somewhat of a mini-trend this year.

Ianonne:Sanderson also has a “red line cabinet” which is made from reclaimed douglas fir floorboards from the philadelphia academy of music. How cool is that?

I also saw this lovely table at the Ianonne:Sanderson booth. I really like the combination of white plastic and textured Kirei board. In fact, I was so taken with the Kirei board, that I had to track down the Kirei people to learn more about it. For more information about Kirei, click here

Natura was showing off their large scale photo-realistic wall-murals at the furniture fair. Painter Mr. Gaillard, will come to your house or apartment, survey the scene, and then personally custom-design and hand-paint a serene nature scene for your wall.

Molo’s folding paper Softwall was the hit of ICFF, taking awards and showing up at 3 or 4 different boothes.

The Swedish Glasklasen, made by Form Nasielksy, was one of my favorite discoveries at ICFF.

In the same Swedish trade booth, I saw another lovely chandelier, called Kristall, made by Lyx.

In the Canadian section I came across Montreal-based brother and sister design duo Periphere, showing off their lovely Uno Chair and Iceberg table.

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Also representing the Canadians was Brent Comber, a Vancouver-based designer who makes innovative organic furniture from fallen Alder branches.

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Douglas Homer’s thumb puzzle table caught my eye with its op-art aesthetic and modular design. (You can move the tile around like a Rubick’s cube to form different different designs, and there is hidden storage underneath the tiles.)

ICFF’s spatial arrangement by nationality (together with all the flags and nationality-themed exhibitions) made the whole convention feel a bit like the Design Olympics. So I’m going to pretend that I was asked to be a judge of this particular Design Olympics, and give out the following awards:

GOLD to Austrian Xpand System, for the Xpanding Table in the “Why hasn’t anyone come up with this idea before”category

SILVER to Swedish Form Nasielsky, for the Glasklasen Wine Glass Chandelier in the “Why hasn’t anyone come up with this idea before” category

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2 Comments

excellent idea! when you’ve built your musical table, email me and I’ll be sure write about it on Inhabitat.

DustinMay 23, 2005 at 9:30 pm

Hmmm… that slatted table has got me thinking. It would be rather neat to combine that kind of table with the concept of the musical door you mentioned earlier, creating a musical coffee table! That way if company ever becomes boring you can regale them with table tunes.